In an address to nearly 150 Christian leaders from around the world on Thursday, Pope Francis called for a “new ecumenical spring” to redefine efforts towards unity – one marked not by tailoring the faith to “worldly ways of thinking,” but rather, one made possible by an attractive witness to the joy of the Gospel.
Speaking to a crowd of an estimated 40,000 Swiss Catholics on Thursday, Pope Francis used the “Our Father” as a tool for reclaiming Christian roots and values.
On his ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva, Pope Francis said that Christian life requires sacrifice, because it demands that personal interests, such as ethnic ties or party lines no longer become central to one’s identity.
Five years into his papacy, Pope Francis continues to enjoy enviously high polling numbers of public support, with new survey results showing that over 84 percent of American Catholics approve of him.
More than 80 prominent and emerging Catholic leaders gathered this week in an effort to see how a unified American Catholic Church might offer a better way forward.“Though Many One: Overcoming Polarization through Catholic Social Thought,” hosted by the Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, served as an attempt to break across current divides within the Church and to take advantage of the momentum of the Pope Francis papacy to positively influence public life.
Pope Francis has appointed the first layperson to head Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University.
Pope Francis sent condolences to Guatemala after a horrific volcanic eruption left more than 60 people dead.
An Irish bishop said he hopes Pope Francis’ August visit can help bring healing after a divisive referendum that will pave the way for abortion on demand up to 12 weeks’ gestation.
An abuse survivor, who had been disparaged for being a homosexual, said that Pope Francis told him that God made him that way and loved him for who he was.
Every bishop in Chile offered his resignation to Pope Francis after a three-day meeting at the Vatican to discuss the clerical sexual abuse scandal.
